


Hit You With My Love Shot

by mammothluv



Category: Castle
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-07
Updated: 2012-06-07
Packaged: 2017-11-07 05:42:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/427523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mammothluv/pseuds/mammothluv
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Castle, Beckett, laser tag</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hit You With My Love Shot

**Author's Note:**

> Castle belongs to ABC and the the show's creators. I'm not making any profit and no copyright infringement is intended. Yes, my title is from a old school Mandy Moore song. I refuse to be ashamed.
> 
> Many thanks to lytab5 who is a frakking awesome beta.

“Beckett, you’re not even trying,” Castle practically whines as one sensor on her vest lights up bright green, accompanied by an obnoxious ‘you’re hit’ sound effect.

And she wasn’t. She wasn’t into this at all. But now that he’s gotten in the first hit, which is completely unacceptable, _he’s whining about it?_

“Oh, but it’s on now, Castle,” she responds as she crouches behind a chair and then springs up again, hitting the lowest left sensor on his vest while he’s still standing there pouting.

Four sensors on each vest means she needs three more to win. There is no way he is beating her.

Her hit spurs Castle back into action. He quickly ducks behind the chair diagonal from hers.

The apartment goes quiet. She listens carefully for any sign that Castle is on the move but he appears to be trying to wait her out. Normally she’d be happy to prove to him how truly impossible that is but she’s starving and they’re not going to lunch until one of them wins. She knows this for a fact because, fifteen minutes ago when he was handing her the vest and gun, he’d actually uttered the words, “We’re not going to lunch until one of us dies.”

It’s going to be him. 

She fishes in her pocket for her keys and pulls them out then flicks her wrist to send them skittering loudly across the hardwood floor.

He peeks out but just barely. The shot she fires misses him completely.

“Amateur move,” he scoffs from his hiding place.

“Show yourself, scumbag!” She regrets the word choice before the sentence has even fully left her mouth and, Castle being Castle, he does not let it go by without comment.

“Show yourself, _scumbag?_ ” he repeats incredulously.

"You said to get into it."

"I have never once heard you call an actual suspect scumbag."

Beckett doesn’t respond. The keys were a tactical maneuver. She never expected him to fall for it but knows now he’s facing in the direction of the piano which means his back is to the front wall of the apartment. She crawls slowly out from behind her chair, careful not to make a sound. It’s more difficult than she expected given the clunky vest.

“You’re normally much better at the tough talk is all I’m saying,” he continues. “And, because you’ve set such a high bar for yourself, I cannot help but be disappointed by your lack of creativity just now.”

She rises to her knees to close the few feet now left between them.

"You want our role-play to feel a little more realistic is what I hear you saying," she whispers into his ear.

Castle lets out a high pitched shriek and spins away from her, scampering to his feet and through the entryway to his office to duck behind the bookshelves for cover. It’s a flurry of arms and legs and noises no grown man should be capable of making and Kate has to bite her lip to keep from laughing at the spectacle. 

She’s not so distracted that she misses the opportunity to get in one more shot though and the sound effect from his vest is accompanied by Castle’s loud objections.

"This is not fair," he complains. "You're a cop. You shoot people for a living."

"I do not shoot people for a living,” she says, unable to keep the laughter out of her voice. “I am sometimes required to shoot people as a part of my job."

"Don’t try to distract me by critiquing my word choice. You have professional training!"

She hears a thump, books being toppled from the shelves she assumes. She’s certain the sound is meant to draw her attention and draw her from behind the chair she’s now crouched behind. She ignores it and resists the urge to echo his “amateur move” from earlier. Instead she rolls her eyes, hopes he's able to feel her judgement even though he can’t see her.

“Just two minutes ago, you were complaining that I wasn’t giving this my all,” she replies dryly.

“That was before you nearly killed me using your unfair advantage.”

A few moments of quiet and then he’s coming for her. Despite what she assumes are his attempts to keep quiet, she can picture his every move as he works his way out of the office and toward her chair. She makes a mental note to advise him later never to attempt a sneak attack in an actual life or death situation, then she shifts and kicks the end table that sits on the side of the chair he is now approaching. Kate winces when she hears a thud as the table hits Castle and then the sound of glass shattering as the table lamp falls to the floor.

Any worries she has about him holding destruction of his property against her are erased when she hears him exclaim, “Awesome!” as she makes a beeline for the door to his bedroom.

He follows, expecting she’ll have taken cover inside but she’s standing just to the right of the door when he enters. Kate fires, sees the bright blue lights on Castle's suit indicate a hit to the shoulder. Before he can react, well he has time to make a pained face but not enough to shoot back, she runs and slams both hands down on the on the bed propelling herself into a roll to the other side. She flattens herself on the floor, the bed providing cover but no escape. She’s boxed in now but that’s okay. She’s got one hit left to take him down and this is where she plans to make her last stand.

Castle positions himself at the foot of the bed and reaches his gun around for a lucky blind shot that hits one of her three remaining sensors. He lets out a small yelp of victory when he hears the sound that indicates his hit was successful.

The victory celebration doesn’t last for long though as Kate takes a gamble and rounds the corner of the bed, one arm carefully protecting her remaining two sensors, and finds his chest exposed. She fires once at close range and he’s out.

Castle’s death, like all things he does, is an exaggerated affair filled with unnecessary drama.

“You have...” he lets out a stuttering gasp as he flops around on the floor “betrayed me.” He throws himself onto his back, arms splayed out at an angle that looks downright uncomfortable.

Just when Kate thinks it’s over, when he’s let out what she hopes is one final dramatic moan, he opens his eyes and raises one hand to motion her closer. “I have something to tell you,” he gasps out.

She’s already kneeling next to him and she leans in closer to hear the next part which comes out in his approximation of a pained whisper, “There is... another... Sky...walker.” Then he closes his eyes and his head slumps to the side.

She stands up and kicks him - relatively lightly - in the side.

“Ow,” he exclaims, sitting halfway up and rubbing the offended area. “Do we need to establish some ground rules? Like no kicking me on my birthday? Can’t you let me have my moment?”

“Your moment? One, the Yoda reference doesn’t even make sense in the context of a gun battle. Maybe if we were having a lightsaber duel. And, secondly, you’re lucky your mother wasn’t here to witness that pitiful excuse for a death scene. She would be truly disappointed.”

“Okay, first, that’s an awesome idea. We’re totally having a lightsaber duel later. And, secondly, that was a fine death scene. Top five at least. Number one was when Alexis and I were representing rival alien factions fighting each other for ownership of newly occupied Earth. I fought a valiant battle but, in the end, Alexis bested me. My death, though... my death was something my people, had they been real, would have told tales of for decades.”

She rolls her eyes. “I seriously doubt it, Castle. It’s sad how you inherited exactly none of your mother’s acting talent. Her death on _Temptation Lane_ , the way she sacrificed herself to save that poor little French girl during that hostage standoff in the sewers of Paris, now that was a death scene.”

“Wait. You are way too young to have seen my mother’s epic three week stint on _Temptation Lane_.”

“Everything is on YouTube, Castle,” she says with a wave of her hand. “Something I’m certain you know since you spend so much of your writing,” she finger quotes that last word, “time watching things like _Llamas With Hats._ ”

“Kate Beckett, I know you’re not going to stand there and pretend _Llamas With Hats_ isn’t hilarious. And, oh my God, don’t try to distract me from the fact that you YouTube my mother.”

“I don’t YouTube your mother. I just happened to come across...” She pauses, catching a familiar glint in his eyes, that one he gets when he’s found some new and inventive way to embarrass or harass her. “Don’t you dare tell her that.”

“So telling her that.” He has his phone out of his pocket and his fingers are already tapping away at the keypad when she snatches it away from him. “Later when she gets home,” he says, eyeing the phone which Kate now holds high above her head. Satisfied for the moment, she tosses the phone so it lands on his nightstand.

“I don’t see why you couldn’t have humored me,” he says, bouncing back to their previous topic with no preamble, “maybe let me get in one more hit.”

“I did humor you, Castle. I could have taken you out in the first fifteen seconds.” She’s glad she didn’t. It was actually kind of fun but if she tells him that they’ll be playing laser tag every night for the rest of their lives.

He tugs on her hand and she allows him to pull her down until she lies prone on top of him.

“You don’t know what that does for me, Detective Beckett.”

“Oh, I think I have some idea,” she replies, her face now just inches from his. “You know, when I said we could do anything you wanted for your birthday, laser tag is not what I had in mind.”

“Laser tag isn’t all I have in mind either,” he says, raising one eyebrow suggestively while reaching around her to lightly squeeze her ass. “My birthday does last for twenty-four hours you know.”

“That’s not what I meant either, Castle.”

“It’s a little bit what you meant. Don’t think I didn’t notice how you conveniently led our gunfight into the bedroom. Dirty.” he continues, ignoring the playful punch she delivers to his shoulder, “Also, since my birthday falls on a holiday which we would doubtless be celebrating anyway, we really ought to celebrate my birthday tomorrow as well. Make it a whole two days of you doing my bidding.”

“I am not now, nor will I ever be doing your bidding,” she says, emphasis on the ever. She doesn't even bother to object to his ridiculous assertion that they'd somehow be celebrating April Fools Day if it weren't his birthday. 

“You know maybe we should draw up a written contract for next year instead of a verbal agreement just to avoid any misunderstandings. We can work on that tomorrow.”

“No need, Castle. I am so breaking up with you before next year.”

“Might as well enjoy the time we have left then,” he says, one hand wandering slowly up the inside of her thigh, the other reaching up to draw her head to his for a long, lazy kiss. 

He’s so very, very good at distracting her when she’s willing to let him. 

“Maybe I won’t break up with you,” she says when their lips eventually part.

“No?”

“You’re kind of okay,” she says, playfully nipping at his lower lip.

“I like you, too,” he returns, his hand that has been traveling the length of her thigh wandering upward and tugging at the button on her jeans.

“Castle?”

“Mhmm...”

“This is nice and all but you’re gonna have to take me to lunch first.”


End file.
